Saturday, December 7, 2013

I have posted lots of pics of Comet Lovejoy and managed to get up early enough this morning and brave the chilly Tucson (below freezing...don't judge northerners!) temps to take some shots.

Saguaro National Park east is about a 10 minute drive from where I live. I wanted some pics with some nice foreground objects so I hiked into the park a little bit to get to the first batch of big saguaros. I got several wide shots with a 35mm lens. I used a feature on my Skytracker that will track at only half the rate the stars move across the sky. I did this to split the difference between the land and sky, keeping both of them reasonably in focus with minimal blurring during the 20-30 second exposures I was using.

Of course I felt the need to put on the longer (250mm) zoom lens and try a two minute shot of the comet. The tail is developing nicely and covers several degrees of the sky.

Comet Lovejoy was visible to the naked eye and it is definitely brighter than M13, probably a little brighter than 5th magnitude. Easy and nice binocular target, naked eye under dark skies. For finder chart, Heavens Above is a good place. Just set it to the time you want to observe.

I should note that Lovejoy is moving farther into the northern sky. For much of the continental U.S., it can be seen after sunset and before sunrise, although it is much higher in the sky and easier to see before sunrise. The farther north you are, the easier it is to see after sunset (although Mike Weasner got it after sunset from Oracle, just north of Tucson a few nights ago so anything Tucson or north is fair game for sure!)

I am enjoying this comet, but could the next one please be a good evening object?

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Which one of you wise guys hid or took my silverware during the move? I have a fork, a butter knife, and a paring knife. I've got dishes and bowls and pots and pans, but no utensils. Well, that just keeps giving me an excuse to go to Top Dog Hot Dogs for food. I hope I find my stuff before I go broke.

Why do Racine County taxpayers have to carry so many downtown properties on our backs? Some of these businesses have owed taxes for years and years, and still nothing is done about it. Lying John's friends play by a completely different set of rules than us.. Their tax debt is simply ignored while our services are cut and cut again. I would be ashamed of bilking so many people out of so much money, but lying John's friends are proud of their crimes.

I have always wanted to try a star trails picture. A couple of weeks ago, I had an evening at Kitt Peak. The Moon was waxing gibbous and very bright and lit up the domes very nicely. I was with a group over by the 0.9 meter telescope so I set up my camera outside, programmed it to take 30 second exposures for a few hours, and went about my work.

I ended up with 162 pictures by the time we were getting ready to go. I made some adjustments in Lightroom to tame the bright sky and then imported them into a free program called StarStax. StarStax will add the individual images automatically and create the star trails picture for you. There are some options you can adjust, but it's pretty automated. Here is the result.

Overall I am pretty pleased with the first attempt. I can spot a couple of flaws to clean up (and I would like to figure out where they came from, but I might have to look closely at 162 pictures to find the bloody things!) You can see the north star in its tight dance around the celestial pole and many other stars making nice trails. The lights of Tucsonare off to the right.

I have some old pics I used to make time lapses. I might go back and put together a few more of these from those old pics.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Hello, my movers and shakers!How are you?I’ve been helping Mr. OrbsCorbs settle into his new apartment.There is so much stuff.I think the boxes breed when we’re not
looking.I’m exhausted and I’m just
tapping out a short blog for this week.

Our wounded warriors from Green Bay
fell again on Thanksgiving Day.O
woe!They will meet their next foe, the Atlanta
Falcons, on Sunday at noon.Arise from your wounds and maladies, dear
Packers.Massacre the Falcons.

In the Irregular Football League, we are already into our
playoffs.Of note is that Mr.
OrbsCorbs’ Orbliterators have fallen into fifth place while my Screaming
Psychics remain in second.I predict a
late surge that will result in Mr. Hale-Bopp’s Half-Astrophysicists dropping to
second place.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.We should remember to give thanks more
often.An attitude of gratitude invariably
snaps me out of the dumps.

Christmas is in the air.The Salvation Army bell ringers have been out for weeks.And there are the myriad displays of holiday
lights.Be sure to spend some time with
someone that you love.Like I love
you.Thank you for reading my blog

Monday, December 2, 2013

Another shot from my night on Kitt Peak a few days ago. This is a wide shot taken from the Visitor's Center.

You can see the iconic McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope in the background and the sky glow from Tucson on the left. However, if you look on the right side of the image, you will notice a faint green glow and possibly even fainter red if you look close. This is a real phenomena called air glow. Due to air glow, the sky is never completely dark. Airglow occurs all over the sky but is usually more pronounced close to the horizon since you are looking through a thicker layer of atmosphere.

There are several sources of air glow. During the day, atoms in the upper atmosphere are ionized by sunlight. When the ionized atoms and electrons recombine, they give off light...and oxygen can give off green light in the process. Cosmic rays striking the upper atmosphere contribute to air glow as well. Finally, oxygen and nitrogen can react with hydroxyl ions in the upper atmosphere and give off light through a process called chemiluminescence.

Air glow is not visible during the day as it far too faint. Even at night, you need to be in a very dark site to capture it. Thursday night was the first time I have captured this elusive phenomena.

On Cyber Monday, Amazon.com is expecting (estimating)
they will have sales placed at the rate of 300 orders per second.

They are also working on Drones to deliver orders.The order must be placed within a 10 mile
radius of distributions centers and 5lbs or less.

You place your order on the internet; pickers at the
warehouse(s) will package the order and place it on a conveyor belt.The belt will transport the package and stop
under a Drone.The Drone will then reach
down clamp the package raise it up and fly to a given GPS coordinate or your
house.Come down in your yard, set the
package on the ground and fly back to the distribution center.

Elapse time from placing order to delivery at your home…30
minutes.They are looking at a start up time frame of 2015 - 2017.

Art For Art's Sake

Dear Madame Zoltar

Every Wednesday, Madame Zoltar responds to your queries and comments in her blog, Dear Madame Zoltar. Are the stars in your favor? What to do with that 401K? Find out by sending your questions and thoughts to: madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com

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